This invention relates to storage and handling of disk cartridges and more particularly to an optical disk cartridge handling apparatus which stores and handles optical disk cartridges for the manipulation of data by a host computer.
The storage of data in magnetic media, such as floppy disks or tapes, is well known. However, optical disks have been found to be highly advantageous over the magnetic media. This is so because the optical disks have high degrees of integrity and data storage capabilities together with a high level of sensitivity as well as environmental toughness.
As shown in FIG. 1, optical disks are each typically stored within an optical disk cartridge 10 to protect the disk from dust or dirt The cartridge 10 includes pick notches 12 which assist in orienting, loading and removal of a cartridge 10 into and out of an optical disk drive 20. Optical disks are readily available in the marketplace such as from Sony Corporation of Tokyo, Japan.
The optical disk within the cartridge 10 typically has a side A and side B identified by "A" or "B" on the protective cartridge and a sliding door (see arrow) which permits the drive 20 to gain access to one side of the optical disk within the protective cartridge 10. Typically, the cartridge 10 must be removed and inverted or flipped with reinsertion for the drive 20 to read side "B" or the side opposite side "A." This is typically required because most drives 20 have only one laser thereby requiring the disk to be flipped over for reading or writing the other side of the disk.
Optical disk drives or the data transfer means 20 are currently available in the market. The present invention contemplates using two drives 20 side by side as shown in FIG. 2. Five such available drives 20 that will illustratively work with the apparatus 31 disclosed and claimed herein are RICOH 5030E REWRITABLE, TOSHIBA WM-D070 WORM, PIONEER DD-U5001 WORM, SONY SMO D-501 REWRITABLE, and MAXOPTIX TAHITI REWRITABLE. The optical disk drives 20 typically have a housing 22, a front panel 24 and a slot 26 in front panel 24 through which the optical disk cartridge 10 is inserted and ejected. The reading and writing of data stored on the optical disk within cartridge 10 is performed by the drive 20 under the control of a host computer.
There is a need for an optical disk cartridge handling apparatus that will operate as a library to vertically store a large number of optical disk cartridges and which will place the cartridges within a particular drive 20 as well as remove and replace the cartridges in their storage location without the need for any manual assistance by the operator of the host computer.